Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I am sharing time with Deputies Luke Flanagan, Seamus Healy and Joan Collins.

I was quite intrigued by the Private Members' motion put down by the Fianna Fáil Party in that every sentence of it referred to rural Ireland. It is probably to do with the fact that most of the Fianna Fáil Party Deputies are from rural Ireland and, obviously, there is no Dublin Deputy in the House representing the party.

Some aspects of the Private Members' motion affect urban and rural people in exactly the same way. I specifically want to focus on community employment schemes. I am one of the directors of the resource centres for the unemployed in Kildare and I am also involved on the voluntary committees of a couple of other CE schemes. Essentially, what has been lost in much of this debate is that there seems to be a measurement in community employment schemes regarding the progression into work. As the House will be aware, there is limited enough work. There seems to be an incapacity to understand that in many cases the CE schemes provide important social services such as meals on wheels, the resource centres for the unemployed and a resource to sporting and community organisations that in most other countries would be provided by the local authority.

The reduction in the materials grants, from €1,500 to €500, will mean that some community employment is simply not sustainable. I would ask that this matter be reviewed specifically with a view to maintaining some of those services.

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